Working as a team

Never forget that any document (except protected pages, accessible only to administrators) can be edited at any time by anyone. See below (Edition puis Content Validation) for good practices to be followed.

Talk pages

It is often useful, convenient or necessary to leave a message to someone else. For that purpose a “Talk” page is associated with each document when it is created, for example here: Talk:Wiki Technical Guide[[Talk:{{FULLPAGENAME}}]].

In any case, you must try to maintain something readable, so each topic will start with a title ===Title of the topic==. It is better to have fifty small separate subjects, each with a title, than a single package of fifty subjects. This facilitates discriminated responses in their consideration, implementation, etc.

At the end of the subject, always sign with ~~~~. This immediately lets anyone know who posted the message and when.

Usually, responses are made by indenting as in emails. This is done by opening the line with one more : than the previous part. Obviously each answer, each rebound will be signed. This is very useful for someone who will ask the same questions later on and who will thus see this discussion as part of a “Knowledge Base”.

Last, it may be useful to attach to the title a ✓ to indicate that the subject is closed ==Title of the topic {{OK}}==. If the subject has to be reopened, the ✓ can be replaced by a ✗{{KO}}.

Unfortunately, those concerned by the question are not necessarily informed (the number of articles monitored - and therefore likely to have their changes notified - is capped so as not to blow up the database). Thus, also think about preventing the person or persons who may be concerned by the discussion by indicating the link to the discussion. Again, title and signature, even if very short, are welcome.

Sponsorship

At first glance we will notice that if the Wiki is easy at writing, it is heavy to manage with all its rules of conviviality and efficiency, its traditions built on the experience of its predecessors, etc. This because the wiki also has its “Lore” (oral tradition).

Do you really want to get involved in the wiki? So don't hesitate to be sponsored, without embarrassment, shyness or shame... We have all made our debut, and perhaps, hopefully, it will be up to you to sponsor later on. You don't know anyone? Try to contact “alumni” on https://chat.ryzom.com/channel/pj-ryzom_wiki or contact them from Special:ActiveUsers.

everything must be translated into at least Ryzom's three “mother tongues”: DE, EN and FR;

• the rest and especially the roleplay parts

there are no rules, only players' and translators' concerns prevail.

Edition

With the exception of archived documents and documents with the official status of “final document” (Lore, Chronicle), everything can be improved and this is one of the riches of wikis.

Nevertheless, certain rules of constructive conviviality must be respected.

First of all, it is necessary to assess whether or not the changes are significant. There are no rules and it's more of a feeling, but if the change is drastic, it's wise to start by looking at the page's history (button next to “Edit”). If the content (not the form, look, spelling…) has not changed for some time, we can assume that its author left it for this and that the document may have aged, that it may need updating. An example is shown opposite.

An update can be considered drastic when it deletes paragraphs or even lines that are fundamental to the development of the topic. In this case it becomes appropriate to leave a message in the “User Discussion:xyz” page. While waiting for his answer (one week?), it is wise to keep in the modified page the original text passed as a comment. The easiest way to pass a text as a comment is to preface it with <!-- and to follow it with -->. But there are sometimes issues, especially if there are already other comments. In this case, the hammer and chisel can be used by framing the text with <noinclude><includeonly> and </includeonly></noinclude>. Why such a complication? Because it is always necessary to respect the writings of an author and his intellectual authorship, even in free software world. Otherwise, we run the risk of an:

Edit war

“An edit war occurs when editors who disagree about the content of a page repeatedly override each other's contributions. Editors engaged in a dispute should reach consensus or pursue dispute resolution rather than edit warring. Edit warring is unconstructive and creates animosity between editors, making consensus harder to reach. Users who engage in edit wars risk being blocked or even banned. An editor who repeatedly restores their preferred version is edit warring, regardless of whether those edits are justifiable: “But my edits were right, so it wasn't edit warring” is no defense.”

“In Wikipedia, a version conflict or edit conflict occurs when two contributors work on the same page at the same time: the second one who records, having worked with an obsolete version of the page, has his modification rejected. Since version 1.3 of MediaWiki, this only happens if the changes cannot be merged automatically.“

Working in tranquillity

Of course, incidents on the course and clumsiness will never be avoided at 100%, so the wisest thing to do is to follow the following recommendations (from Wikipedia Aide:Conflit de versions) :

“To avoid version conflicts, the easiest way is to avoid long modifications.

However, this is not always possible. This is why it is recommended, when modifying a page in depth, to first add the banner{{WIP|~~~~}}which is displayed as follows:

!!!! WIP !!!!

There are currently still 40 articles in preparation in the category "WIP"

Article in preparation. Please let the author finish it before you modify it.The last editing was from Maupas on 14.06.2019. -- Zo'ro-ArghWoren Siloy 28 mai 2019 à 14:19 (CEST)

Once the page is published with this banner, you can modify it at any time. Limit the number of changes by using the preview to make adjustments (this saves time and avoids cluttering the page with recent changes).

The Lore which sets the fundamental characteristics of the game (homins don't speak Klingon, Karavan doesn't fly on fire dragons and Kamis don't emerge from an oil lamp). These characteristics are detailed in the portal of the Lore. Here, they will be briefly described to indicate their existence.

Other documents may be considered sensitive for maintenance, such as the widely used templates that can change the appearance, or even readability, of the documents.

Finally, contributors, whether developers, players (RP or not), animators or others, may find it useful to request validation of their work.

A document validated by the Lorists, the official communications officers or the administrators is protected against any modifications not expressly authorized.

The Lore

Summary of the specific treatment of documents related to the Lore

Official copy

Text written by the Lorists and transcribed or translated by encyclopatysts.
At the very top of the page, the Lore logo is affixed {{Official Lore}} wihich will display the picture .

Validation

A Lorist affixes, if that has not already being done, the Lore logo, and erases any banners that may have been used to request validation. Then the Lorist (who can delegate this task to an administrator) protects the page. The Lore logo then becomes: .

Categories

All data, articles, images, templates, portals, etc., must be categorized.

On the use of categories

Categories are very useful for cataloging documents and easing their search. It must be understood that a category resembles a set in the mathematical sense of the term, in other words:

an article can belong to several sets;

a set of article can be fully included in another;

It is unnecessary to declare that an article belongs to two sets if one of them is completely included in the other.

Example: a red sock can belong to the categories: socks, red objects, red clothes, clothes.
Normally, declaring that this sock belongs to the red clothes is sufficient. But one could also say that it belongs to the socks and to the red objects without referring to red clothes. In both cases, it is useless to declare that it belongs to the clothes.

The choice of categories can sometimes be linked to the tools that allow you to search in a category and that are often displayed in portals. For example:

Portal …

There are for now 19 pages …

Ce qui est obtenu par There are for now {{Number of pages}} pages on …

Of course, it appears from the previous example that there may be exceptions mainly related to the ergonomics of the research. Indeed, the automatic search (random search for an item to include, for example - see Spotlight on below) in category trees requires a lot of time and energy. Therefore, it is preferable to use {{Number of pages}} that does not go down in sub-categories.

The main categories of this wiki

Wikis, linked to the Ryzom universe, are supposed to share data common to the basic languages of the game.
These common data are grouped in four trees detailed in the article Categorization. Only the “big branches” are detailed to leave the freedom to organize the data to each linguistic group. But these trunks and their “big branches” are essential, especially for translators who want to easily navigate between groups of articles.

—• Six wikis, six category systems, all images in common •—

Template

“A template is used to reproduce the same message, or the same layout, on several pages, sometimes according to parameters.

It is a pre-written element, more or less complex, intended to be embedded in a page in order to instantly obtain the desired visual result (formatting, display of specific elements, etc.). The banners at the top of the articles, the infoboxes, the centuries display… are templates.”

Visual aspect and graphic charter

The visual aspect must recall the identity of the game. For example: “infoboxes” remind us of “memory ambers” (RP) or interfaces of the Karavan (OOC). Icons in general refer more or less clearly to the game world.

A graphic charter has two functions (at least):

an identification function, recalling the spirit of the site (for example by using the emblematic colours of nations, factions);

an ergonomic function, by avoiding the “element of surprise”, i.e. avoiding differences of behaviour between pages or between translations.

For these two reasons, it should be adhered to as much as possible.

Banners, seals and indicators in header

Header or paragraph templates are used to alert the reader on the way the page they are consulting should be interpreted (obsolescence, in the process of being written, etc.) and to highlight important announcements regarding the article.

Banners, navigation, time stamps

Footer templates are used to provide the reader with additional information that may be of interest after reading the page.

Page body

Page body templates are used to complete or highlight information related to the current page. Highlightings can be diverse, such as large inserts or various typographic layouts.

All templates

Warning : not exactly the same for all languages, but let us try to harmonize them as much as possible.

the panel summarizing the main portals of the Ryzom Wiki ({{Portal bottom}}).

Portals have not been built in a day and therefore their design has been refined over time. In general, we try to include documents in them using the template {{:DOCNAME}} where DOCNAME=Name of the document to include.

Doc of the day

It is sometimes pleasant to have documentation that gives an overview of the themes presented under the portal.
This can be done as follows:

A different document included

ENGLISH

FRENCH

When necessary

{{:Featured article/...}}

{{:Lumière sur/...}}

Every day of the week

{{:Featured article/GBA/Week/{{CURRENTDOW}}}}

{{:Lumière sur/.../Jour/{{CURRENTDOW}}}}

Every day of the month

{{:Featured article/GBA/Month/{{CURRENTDAY2}}}}

{{:Lumière sur/.../Mois/{{CURRENTDAY2}}}}

Bulletin board

Bulletin boards contain information about both readers and contributors. This can range from simple information to emergencies, “To do” lists and “Tips and Tricks”.

Associated categories

All relevant pages

To associate an article to a portal, just add at the bottom of the text of the said article a block of instructions of the following type:

the “clear” ensures that the navigation bar to the portal is well above the last image;

the “last version link” allows you to time stamp the page and adds a discreet tab to find the origin of an inclusion;

the “noinclude” can be put in so as not to pollute the inclusion.

On the front page

Adding the navigation banner to the portal also places the article in “hidden” categories, categories that would not be shown to the reader because they are not relevant, but are indicated by a [+] located after the last displayed category. The random choice technique has been rejected by Mediawiki as too expensive. Currently, it is preferred a restricted choice (day of the week or month). This requires you to create one redirection at a time to the page you want to highlight. Thus, for example, the “Featured article/GBA/Day/3” page (3rd of the month or Wednesday) is redirected to “Primes Raider”.

What if the article is too long to be included, or if only some of its sections are worthwhile?

The wisest way is to signal the sections to be displayed or hidden in the future inclusion by marking them up in the source article.

<noinclude> and </noinclude></noinclude> tags allow to exclude the parts they frame from the future inclusion.

<onlyinclude> and </onlyinclude> tags allow to include only the parts they frame in the future inclusion.

<includeonly> and </includeonly> tags allow to include only the parts they frame in the future inclusion, while masking them in the original article (to be handled carefully in a template).

This latter markup is used, for example, to hide in the original article the “To be continued…” ({{read more|<<the original article>}} displayed below) but displays it in the inclusion.

Home page

Home pages are “specific” because they are those that appear by default when you log in to the wiki. These pages are not editable and can contain many HTML (and Java) tricks. This implies that only seasoned contributors can modify them on community consensus or communication imperatives.